Demonstrators complained that the early Tuesday morning raid involved beatings and violence.

“People who were part of a dynamic civic process were beaten and pepper-sprayed, their personal property destroyed,” said a posting on OccupyWallSt.org, a website for the demonstrators.

In a press conference Monday morning, Bloomberg said that members of the media were kept to the side for their protection while the park was emptied.

But progressives were not buying that explanation, and accused Bloomberg of violating their liberties – even of acting as if he were the head of a “police state.”

“When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to stage a middle of the night raid on the Occupy Wall Street protesters in Zuccotti Park, there was one thing he didn’t want … media coverage. So Bloomberg said screw the First Amendment,” reads a posting on the Daily Kos.

“We’ll just hold off on all those pesky rights until it’s more convenient. Or not,” said the blog’s Barbara Morrill sarcastically.

Liberal blogs especially seized upon one incident, in which Village Voice writer Rosie Gray apparently told a police officer, “I’m press,” to which the officer responded, “not tonight.”

“This was real police state stuff,” wrote FireDogLake’s David Dayden after noting the incident involving Gray. “I know that the First Amendment comes with that addendum, “Operative 6am-11pm M-F,” but absolutely nothing about this raid seems justified.”

But some tried to make positive light out of the overnight raid, arguing that it would be productive for Occupy Wall Street’s cause.

“So OWS was either going to end with the cops clearing the park, or else it was going to end with the protestors losing interest. It would be totally human and understandable for the protestors to end up fading away as the weather gets colder… Instead, by ordering the protestors to be removed the Bloomberg administration has ensured continued relevance for the issue. All over the internet today all eyes are on New York and on Occupy Wall Street,” wrote ThinkProgress’ Matthew Yglesias.

“The occupation of Zuccotti Park was always going to have a tough time enduring for much longer,” echoed Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein.

“As the initial excitement wore off and the cold crept in, only the diehards — and those with no place else to go — were likely to remain… In aggressively clearing them from the park, Bloomberg spared them that fate. Zuccotti Park wasn’t emptied by weather, or the insufficient commitment of protesters. It was cleared by pepper spray and tear gas. It was cleared by police and authority. It was cleared by a billionaire mayor from Wall Street and a request by one of America’s largest commercial real estate developers. It was cleared, in other words, in a way that will temporarily reinvigorate the protesters and give Occupy Wall Street the best possible chance to become whatever it will become next.”